Tennis Teams Advance to ASC Finals; Both to Face Hardin-Simmons
April 19, 2008

The University of Texas at Tyler men’s and women’s tennis teams each won their semi-final matches on Saturday at the Summers Tennis Center to advance to 2008 American Southwest Conference Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championship matches. Both teams will face Hardin-Simmons, the No. 1 seed from the West in both men’s and women’s.

In the day’s first match, the Patriots, the No. 1 seed from the East, squared of against the No. 3 seed from the East, the UT Dallas Comets. The two teams met just 8 days previous to today’s match-up in Richardson, where UT Tyler won 8-1.

During the doubles matches, the Patriots No. 2 team of Steven Campbell and Robert Sajovich were the first to finish, having little trouble with Dallas’s Donald Kasitinon and Daniel Hendra, beating them 8-2

In the No. 1 Doubles, Dustin Phillips and David Ashlock took care of the tough Comet pair of Eric Debusschere and Nick Clifford, 8-5.

The only blemish on the day for UT Tyler came at the No. 3 doubles where brothers, Jay and Derek DeCoste, took out Patriots, Nick Kreines and Jordan Repher, 8-5.

In singles action, the No. 3 and 4 flights for UT Tyler easily took care of their UT Dallas counterparts to put the Patriots up, 4-1. Steven Campbell beat Donald Kasitinon, 6-0, 6-1, at No.3, while David Ashlock downed Kyle Faber, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 4.

In what would be the deciding match, UT Tyler’s No.2, Robert Sajovich went into his match with Nick Clifford looking for revenge, as Clifford beat Sajovich in last week’s match. Sajovich found what he was looking for, beating Clifford 6-3, 7-6 and sealing the match for the Patriots.

The win advances UT Tyler to tomorrow’s ASC Men’s Tennis Championship match against Hardin-Simmons at 1:00 p.m. Hardin Simmons, advanced to the Championship by beating Mississippi College, 5-2, earlier in the day.

UT Tyler now stands at 16-6 on the year, while UT Dallas ends their season at 11-7.

In the afternoon match, the Patriot women, the top-seed in the East Division, took to the courts to meet the No. 2 Seed from the West, Mary Hardin-Baylor

In doubles action, Nicole Barrett and Rachel Anders got things going for the Patriots by taking down the Lady Cru’s No. 2 team of Christi Voss and Elise Kunze, 8-3.

The Patriots continued their winning ways as Beth Launius and Rachel Anders easily beat Amber Long and Whitney Wolz of UMHB in the No. 1 flight, 8-2.

In what tuned out to be UMHB’s only point in the match, Rebecca Everett and Heather Maust defeated UT Tyler’s Lauren Giovannini and Brittany Ude, 8-6.

Heading into the singles portion of the match, the Patriots would need just three points for the victory. In the end, three matches is all that it would take. UT Tyler took the next three points to end the match at 5-1 and land themselves a spot in tomorrow’s final.

Beth Launius, Michelle Hagler, and Lauren Giovannini each dispatched their opponents in straight sets, with Hagler and Giovannini each earning shutouts on the day.

The Patriots are now 16-3 overall, while Mary Hardin-Baylor’s 2008 campaign closes out at 8-4.

The women will take on Hardin-Simmons in tomorrow’s final, which will be held at the Summers Tennis Center and start approximately 30 minutes after the end of the men’s final.

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